January 24, 2019 – at Sea
Another rough day and night put us near Jamaica.
I started the morning at the gym and hit the elliptical trainer. I decided to do an hour at level 10. What made at even more exciting than usual was the ship moving through the great swells. I really had to hang on. After about 40 mins I decided to look at the different metrics on the machine. I had to push a button to get to the next metric. Steps per minute, steps per hour, size of stride. When I saw the last one I was sure that Leonard Falcone was in the room
Anyone see the significance here?
Terri took in the Abs class. She was back before I was even finished. “Lame” is what I remember.
We did team trivia again and did not do as well as yesterday. The questions were a lot tougher than the previous day and there were a few that had all 6 of us without even a reasonable guess. The same team who won yesterday, won again today.
We spent much of the afternoon in our room. I don’t usually get seasick. I blame it on the quiche right before the treadmill.
Dinner was interesting. After decades in sales, Terri has no problem getting people to talk. People love to talk about themselves and the two couples who we joined constantly stepped on themselves as they tried to one up each other. As we looked across at each other we began to roll our eyes a bit. I sat next to Anthony and we talked about our careers. When he learned what I did he told me that he played the oboe in his High School band. His wife Nancy played the clarinet. (yes Mrs Smith, I did invite them to join the community band). Terri joined in with, “you know Anthony, Jeff always says one bad oboe can kill a 100 piece band”. Anthony muttered something about not liking a reed instrument and the conversation went in other directions. Dinner ended and the two couples left. Terri had some wine left so we sat a bit longer and struck up conversation with a couple at a table next to ours. Turns out Jim and Jean are mutual friends with Tom and Marcia from Bucyrus, Ohio. Marcia worked with Terri for years and Tom makes a mean fried bologna sandwich. He also drives a classic 60s GTO. Great friends.
The evening entertainment was fantastic. Isabel Commandeur from the Netherlands. She was the winner of the show “What’s My Name”. The same show as “American Idol” here.What a great voice. She belted out some great tunes from the 40s – 60s and included Venus by the Dutch group Shocking Blue. It was great show and I am sure we will be hearing a lot of her in the future.
We finished the evening in the Crow’s Nest listening to the Station Band play Latin and Salsa Music. They have a very authentic sound. We felt like we were at Camino Real in Southgate eating a burrito and listening to the mariachi band. One glance at the solid asian band closed the vision.
Tomorrow is our first port. Santa Marta, Colombia
…